According to Kenyan trade unions and human rights activists, China is preparing to get its hands on the port of Mombasa.
What is already envisaged in the agreements for the infrastructure built by the Beijing companies, with strong funding from its government, from 2014, in particular for the Mombasa-Nairobi railway and the connection with the sea port and the land port of Naivasha, could become a reality in the face of Kenya's inability to pay the installments with interest to repay the loan.
According to the Okoa Mombasa organization, the planned merger between Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Railways Corporation and Kenya Pipeline Company will effectively lead China to take control of the port of Mombasa through the African Star Railways Cooperation, into which the three national companies, which is owned by China Road and Bridges Cooperation, could merge.
Salim Karama, a member of Okoa Mombasa, said that the media have been inhibited from reporting the imminent handover of the port.
The reality may not be very different from what activists are predicting: since last January 2020, Kenya Railways Corporation should have started to compensate the Chinese for the loan received to build the SGR railway, according to an agreement signed with Exim Bank of China.
The Kenyan state company appealed to the Court in Nairobi, declaring irregularities in the tender, but if in the meantime there was the green light for the merger, activists also cited the lack of public participation in the merger of the three state companies.
"There is no public participation, there is no contribution from Parliament, there is no contribution from stakeholders, including the Kenyans Transporters Association, can only mean that this is not good for the country," complained one of them, as reported by the online newspaper Kenyans.
This is not the only news in which Chinese interests are associated with Kenya: according to a dossier of the U.S. Congress, the African country is among the chosen ones in the Continent for the installation of an army base of the People's Republic of China in its territory.
For the moment, the Chinese have only one logistics base in Africa, in the small state of Djibouti.
According to the US dossier, the Chinese are thinking not only of Kenya but also of Tanzania, Angola and Seychelles.